The high duties were particularly obnoxious to Southerners, who considered them a tax taken from their pockets for the benefit of the North, and who fought persistently for a reduction. They finally secured a hearing; and duties were steadily reduced in the period from 1833 to 1842 until they stood, at the later date, at a general level of 20 per cent. The tariff remained at this low level only two months, when it gave place to another tariff with higher duties; the average of the duties levied ad valorem was 33 per cent, while some duties rose far above this rate. Finally, from 1846 until the Civil War, the country was under a low tariff; duties were reduced until the maximum protective duty was 24 per cent, while the general level was about 20 per cent.
657. Effect of the tariff on industrial development.—What effect did the tariff policy have upon the industries and the commerce of the country? To this question the only safe answer is that the effect of the tariff was much less, for good or for bad, than has commonly been stated by writers on either side of the controversy between protection and free trade. The country has grown rich from the wealth of its natural resources and the character of its people. The tariff diverted into manufacturing more people than would otherwise have chosen that branch of production, but it did not succeed in making them all prosperous. Manufactures which were suited to the conditions of the time, as the cotton manufacture, grew strong under the tariff, and would have grown strong without it; other manufactures, such as those of iron and wool, were still feeble after years of protection. Commerce must have felt the effect of the tariff, for protection could be effective only as it restricted the exchange of wares with foreign countries. We are tempted to ascribe the rapid increase in imports and exports after 1846 to the reduction in duties. Yet, even here, many other influences favored the growth of our foreign trade, and it is impossible to determine which of them all was most effective.
658. Changes in the relative importance of shipping ports; southern ports and the export trade.—In the course of this period the development of new land in the West and Southwest, and the rise in importance of the cotton crop, effected some notable changes in the relative rank of the ports of the country. Measuring importance by the value of the domestic exports, we find that New York now held the first place; this port was in 1860 the shipping point for nearly one third of the total export values of the country. A considerable part of the value of exports from New York, however, was formed of precious metals, attracted there by the banks and the facilities for rapid voyages on passenger vessels. If we confine ourselves to the shipment of ordinary merchandise, we find that New York, in spite of the western connections afforded by the railroads and the Erie Canal, took second place, showing but two thirds of the export values leaving the country by way of New Orleans. This port was the natural outlet for the cotton-growing country of the lower Mississippi valley, and its export of the one ware, cotton, exceeded in value all the merchandise shipped from New York. It was cotton, again, that gave standing to the ports next in rank, Mobile, Charleston, and Savannah; the exports from these cities, aside from that single staple, were insignificant. Old ports like Boston and Baltimore had sunk to the sixth and seventh place, while Philadelphia, once the leader, was still lower on the list, and was outranked by San Francisco, if the gold shipments from that port be counted.
659. Northern ports and the import trade.—The reader who remembers what has been said above about the triangular course of trade in this period will not be surprised to learn that the figures of imports tell a very different story. New York enjoyed an import trade nearly double that of all the other ports of the country together; it was the great distributing point for European manufactures, from which the various ports of the country secured most of their supply. Second in rank, but separated by an immense interval, was another northern port, Boston; while New Orleans was but a poor third, and Philadelphia and Baltimore followed in the order named. Other southern ports, ranking high in the value of their exports, had only an inconsiderable import trade.
660. Changes in the direction of trade. New character of the trade with England.—There had been changes also in the direction of our trade abroad. The following brief table gives figures in round millions, for 1860, which may be compared with the figures for 1790 given in section 586.
It will be noted that our trade with English-speaking people formed still the most important part of our total commerce. A noteworthy change had taken place, however, in our trade with the British possessions. At any earlier period we imported from them far more than we could sell to them in return; the balance of trade was against us, as men said. This condition had been reversed by the rise of the cotton trade, and was to be still further affected by our export of foodstuffs. Great Britain was now dependent on us for the raw material of her most important manufacture, and was seeking from us also increasing supply of food, for her factory population.
| Exports | Imports | |
|---|---|---|
| Great Britain and her dominions | 228 | 177 |
| Including Canada | 11 | 18 |
| British West Indies | 5 | 1 |
| France and her dominions | 57 | 43 |
| Spain and her dominions | 20 | 44 |
| Including Cuba | 11 | 34 |
661. Trade with Canada and the West Indies.—Our trade with Canada was of comparatively recent growth. Restrictive duties had formerly checked exchange with our northern neighbor, but as population and industries developed on either side of the frontier a demand for greater freedom of exchange made itself felt; duties were reduced, a reciprocity treaty was negotiated (1854), and under it many articles were exchanged free of all duties.
It will be noted that trade with the British West Indies had not developed to a similar degree; and it would be apparent, if other figures were included in the table, that our West India trade in general was far less important than it had been in the earlier period of our history. Trade with the French and the Dutch West Indies was, in fact, less in 1860 than in 1790. Among all the West India islands Cuba alone was a prominent exception to this tendency to decline. Slavery was still maintained in that island; and the sugar industry, which had felt severely in other islands the abolition of slavery, continued to flourish there.
662. Expansion of American commerce in Europe, South American, and the Far East.—It may be said, in general, that our commerce had broken through the rather narrow bounds which had formerly directed so much of it to England and to the West Indies. We were building up our trade with the continent of Europe. Our trade with France had increased greatly under the liberal commercial policy of Napoleon III, and we were establishing profitable connections with other European states, as is shown by the following figures for our total trade with them in 1860 (millions of dollars): German states 33, the Netherlands 10, Italian states 9.